WLP222 Online Communities
Online communities help people connect, wherever they are physically based. They’ve become an important part of the remote work ecosystem, and we have some great guests joining us today to help us explore the different forms they can take and what they mean to their participants.
Just one bit of topical news: Pilar is cohosting a meetup with one of today’s guests Martin Gibraith, from the IAF on the 27th of February - a hybrid meeting, about facilitating hybrid conversations! So do check out ‘Facilitating Hybrid Conversations’ if you’re either in London, or wish to join virtually.
And don’t forget to let us know how our new schedule is working for you - our ‘Connection and Disconnection’ fortnightly series with ShieldGEO which started last week, interspersed with today’s multi-guest episodes, and the monthly issue-based episodes with Pilar and Maya. We hope the varied approach is working well for you, our listener.
7.48 Lisette Sutherland - Virtual Team Talk
Lisette Sutherland
Lisette is our long-term collaborator and former co-host of this very podcast, founder of Collaboration Superpowers and author of ‘Work Together Anywhere’.
Lisette has a great perspective on ‘community’ and what it means in remote work, and she co-founded Virtual Team Talk with Pilar back in the days of their live interviewing on Blab (a video streaming portal, long since departed) - which meant meeting many interesting guests, with whom they wanted to keep in touch. So the VTT Slack group was born more than 4 years ago, to help everyone stay connected via asynchronous continuous conversation.
It has evolved and changed over that time inevitably, in a non-directed self-organising way. People dip in and out, and the conversation has shifted to include many more people. Both Pilar and Lisette are impressed by the way the group has thrived without a lot of hands-on moderation and management - in a way highly tolerant of varied levels of interaction and commitment.
Perhaps that’s because it has stayed small and less noisy than many big Slack communities for distributed networking. Collaborative experiments like internal events, conferences and virtual co-working (episode 73) have come and gone, reflecting the changing tech environment which makes the exciting and new become just one more essential element of the business toolkit as time passes. It remains a great place to find answers to questions and ask for input and support on specific issues from like-minded professionals, as it continues to evolve organically.
Does this conversation hint at a potential collaboration between Lisette and Pilar? You’ll have to listen to discover that. And if you’re curious about Virtual Team Talk and whether it might be for you, find out more.
28.58 Alex Hirst: Hoxby
In contrast to the flexible nature of Virtual Team Talk some online communities are much more intentional and specific - like Hoxby.
Alex Hirst
Enabling global teams to collaborate asynchronously across markets, continents and languages, the 1000 strong network of Hoxby brings together people who work non-typically for a wide range of reasons, to be part of something bigger and collective.
As an organisation, Hoxby curates teams of freelancers from within its network to deliver a diverse range of client contracts, and they operate a profit-share system, as well as discounted internal services and on and offline events.
To manage and inspire their community, their purpose is central to everything they do - changing the way people work, and building a culture around that known as the ‘workstyle’ movement, with many different subjects and layers. It is far more than a work platform or a pool of freelancers. Some people are involved on a more or less full-time basis, but the workstyle expectation is about self-management and engagement for each on their own terms. Membership selection is aligned around cultural fit and commitment, and continual asynchronous communication socially and professionally.
Freelancers seeking flexibility and new clients, particularly for short-term contracts, are encouraged to find out more at Hoxby (applications open quarterly, the next window is in April 2020).
44.40 Telecommuters Talk
Telecommuters Talk is a new community aimed at parents which we discovered on social media, and its founder Victoria Vanderbilt established it to overcome isolation in remote work.
She realised she needed more connection, and that others working remotely might feeling similarly, particularly remote working parents - whocan feel as excluded from the non-working coffee morning groups as the commuters, and need to find their own tribe, both online and locally.
They offer a newsletter, monthly video calls, book clubs, accountability partners, and more.
38:05 Mark Kilby, Agile Coach
Mark Kilby
Veteran of many previous episodes (most recently 219), and third admin of Virtual Team Talk, Mark Kilby has experience of many online communities.
He has found it helpful to keep definitions and boundaries fluid when bringing people together online, allowing for transitions from the Agile Orlando Community which also has connections to other cities, to be part of the Agile Florida Community - which also attracts speakers and contributors from much further afield, even if they initially join up via local meetups and conferences. As a community of specific interest, they’re all part of the global Agile Alliance.
Administrators help to ‘meet and greet’ new members for orientation, and encourage their sharing about needs and interests - which quickly helps them find answers and connections, from shared event attendance or professional activities. It’s a community highly focused around agile practices, as opposed to the more open and exploratory agenda of VTT.
Groups within the community organise around events and volunteering commitments/needs, as well as local/city channels - so the community operates at many different levels of shared experience, and facilitates lots of interaction, including bringing back content of interest from face-to-face conferences for those who cannot attend them in person. This creates a truly hybrid and engaging experience, which blends the remote and colocated experiences. (You can find out more about the Community Group Support at Agile Alliance here.)
1.06.34 Martin Gilbraith, Chair of IAF England and Wales
Martin Gilbraith
Finally a very different kind of community, a membership organisation for facilitators, which has introduced synchronous online gatherings to supplement their face-to-face ones. (Pilar hosts Facilitation Stories podcast, if you’d like to learn more about the art of facilitation).
The England and Wales chapter of the international organisation encourages local connection and collaboration, to advance professional standards and bring people together for mutual connection and support.
They have been operating face-to-face meet-ups for 5 years, from small local coffee get-togethers to more structured learning co-facilitation events to an annual conference. The virtual meet-ups, which have been running for about a year, help to reach those in distant locations, and give a flavour of the face-to-face meetings to encourage attendance. They use Zoom and its breakout room functionality to share, connect and relate - taking very little preparation and organisation (well, they are all professional facilitators, which helps). The brief events definitely whet the appetite for deeper networking, and often lead to participants continuing the conversation elsewhere.
If you use facilitation in your work in any capacity, you can find out more at meetup.com searching for IAF and facilitation, particularly if you want to follow the face-to-face event schedule for your local area alongside the virtual ones. You can connect with Martin Gilbraith via his own site too.
And do keep your feedback coming, we really enjoy it - please contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas.
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